in seoul, south korea ambassadors from that country, from united states, japan, russia, china, meeting with foreign ministry officials. japanese prime minister says we strongly call on north korea to refrain, a little bit of backtracking from china today. in their official media they are saying that perhaps the concerns are exaggerated. all this seems to be a chance once again for the new young leader of north korea, kim jong-un to burnish his image. two weeks from today on december 17th, it is the first anniversary of the death of his father kim jong. two days later the votes in japan. one more troubling note, martha, what we're hearing from south korean sources there is a live-fire exercise planned by north korea off its west coast very close to the border with south korea. two years ago when they tried that some shells landed on a south korean island with deadly results. we were there for that too. that could happen as early as this weekend. back to you. martha: so much we don't know there. greg, thank you very much. greg palkot in london. bill: a bit more on north korea's missile p